‘Too Harsh,’ NFL Punishment May Lack Remedy, Judge Says

Jonathan Vilma, a New Orleans Saints linebacker, was banned for the entire 2012 season for his part in what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called a bounty program. Photographer: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The full-season suspension of
professional football player Jonathan Vilma for his alleged role
in a player injury bounty program was “too harsh,” a judge
said -- adding that she may be unable to change it.

U.S. District Judge Helen G. Berrigan in New Orleans today
heard two hours of arguments from the National Football League
and players over the NFL’s request that she throw out challenges
to the punishments by Vilma, a New Orleans Saints linebacker,
and three other suspended athletes. She didn’t rule.

“I think the penalty was too harsh,” the judge said, She
said she wanted to rule in Vilma’s favor. “If I can do it
legally, I will,” she said.

“I feel very powerless up here,” Berrigan said, citing
the disciplinary provisions in the union contract. “I don’t
think it was fair.”

The collective-bargaining agreement between the NFL Players
Association and the league gives Commissioner Roger Goodell the
authority to punish conduct detrimental to the game and league,
the judge said.

Berrigan ended the hearing saying she had reached
preliminary conclusions and “will try to issue a decision as
quickly as possible.”

“This hearing has been very helpful,” she said. “It has
raised some questions in my mind about what I can and can’t
do.”

Injury Queries

The judge questioned Vilma’s attorney, Peter R. Ginsberg,
about giving cash rewards to players for hits resulting in
opponents’ being carted off the field.

“It seems to me that is in fact a bounty,” she said.

Vilma wasn’t trying to injure anyone, the lawyer responded.

New Orleans player Will Smith faces a four-game ban, and
former Saints Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita face eight-game
and three-game sanctions, respectively.

“The plaintiffs are not entitled to any relief,” league
lawyers argued in court papers, citing the collective-bargaining
agreement. “The suspensions followed an extensive investigation
by the NFL’s Security Department, the results of which were
shared” with the players’ association.

About two dozen Saints players and now-former Defensive
Coordinator Gregg Williams participated in the bounty program,
Goodell announced on March 3.

Probe’s Beginning

The NFL’s investigation started two years earlier when
league officials heard the team was targeting Super Bowl-winning
quarterbacks Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.

Sean Payton, the team’s head coach, has also been
disqualified for the entire 2012 season. Williams, now a member
of the St. Louis Rams’ organization, has been banned
indefinitely.

Vilma, who also sued Goodell for defamation, denied the
bounty program’s existence at a July 26 hearing and testified he
never paid or took money for intentionally inflicting an injury.

“I’ve never offered money to hurt another player -- not
with the Saints, not with the Jets, not in my whole career,”
said Vilma, who was selected by the New York Jets in the first
round of the 2004 draft.

The players’ association filed suit on behalf of Smith,
Fujita and Hargrove. All three cases were consolidated before
Berrigan last month.

Biased Arbitrator

In court papers filed in opposition to the league’s
dismissal request, the players union said Goodell failed to act
as a neutral arbitrator when Vilma and the others challenged
their suspensions.

“The commissioner was acting as an arbitrator in hearing
the players’ disciplinary appeals,” lawyers for the players’
union said in an Aug. 3 filing. “As an arbitrator, the
commissioner was subject to the prohibition against evident
partiality.”

Goodell, the players’ attorneys said, “engaged in a public
relations campaign defending and prejudging the very subjects he
intended to arbitrate.”

Goodell didn’t breach the disciplinary process, Gladstone
Jones, a lawyer for the league, said in court. The commissioner
has “an open mind” about the player punishments, he said.

Goodell has repeatedly said he wants to hear from the
players and would consider reducing their suspensions, Jones
said. The players never gave the process a chance, he said.

“The players were caught between a rock and a hard place,”
Berrigan said.

Coach’s Testimony

Joe Vitt, the acting Saints head coach, who faces a six-game suspension, told Berrigan at the July hearing there was a
pay-for-performance plan rewarding players for plays that help
the team.

“This has always been fun-based performance,” he
testified. “A tackle is $50,” he said “Back in the old days
it was like $5.” He said a “whack” was a legal tackle and one
that forced a player out of the game is a “cart-off.

If a player got a needless penalty, he could lose money for
hurting the team, Vitt said. He said some NFL teams gave color
TV sets for defensive plays. “It was a way to have fun,” Vitt
said. “A kangaroo court, if you will.”

The case is Vilma v. Goodell, 12-cv-1283, U.S. District
Court, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).